Anna
Baird

Nathan
Chan

SAMANTHA
COBB

Justin
Dry

Shahirah
Gardner

Tom
Mcleod

Jason
McPherson

Charlotte
Petris

Kirsteene
Phelan

Rob
Phillpot

Darrell
Wade

Anna Baird

Anna Baird is owner and director at Bared Footwear, a Melbourne-based fashion footwear business that creates great looking shoes that are good for you.

Practicing as a podiatrist for seven years, Anna realised that there was a gap in the market for shoes that she could recommend, and would actually be happy to wear!

Bared began in 2008 in a small store in Toorak Village Melbourne with a limited range of women’s shoes. Since then the business has twice relocated to larger premises, expanded into men’s shoes, and last year opened a new 300 sq. store in Manchester lane in Melbourne’s CBD. Bared now employs over 40 people (25 full time) and its rapid growth continues in both its bricks and mortar and online stores.

Bared now has a large fashion focus, but Anna continues to ensure that her shoes are always designed with foot function and fit in mind. Exceptional customer service in-store and online is paramount to the Bared brand.

Anna is married to Andrew and has two children: Gilbert (nine) and Eliza (six), as well as Frankie, her miniature dachshund.

Read moreRead less

Samantha Cobb

CEO and Executive Director, AdAlta

Sam Cobb is the founding CEO of AdAlta. She has over 15 years’ experience in business development and commercialisation of early stage scientific technologies.

As the founding CEO of AdAlta, Sam has raised over $20m in capital from angel investors and venture capital. Sam was also involved in taking AdAlta public on the ASX, raising $10m in an oversubscribed IPO.

Prior to AdAlta, Sam was the Business Development Director at the Co-operative Research Centre for Diagnostics. Sam has also worked for the biotech startup companies Sensologix Inc and Nephrogenix, and at the University of Queensland’s technology commercialisation companies Uniquest and IMBcom.

Prior to technology commercialisation, Sam worked at the lab bench at Agen Biomedical as a research scientist, developing a diagnostic test for point of care application called Simplify D-dimer. She was involved in taking this product from research through development and to production.

Sam has a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Intellectual Property Law, and has completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.

Read moreRead less

Nathan Chan

CEO, Foundr Magazine

Nathan Chan is the CEO and Publisher of Foundr Magazine. Foundr is a global media and education company that produces magazines and online courses for entrepreneurs. Millions of people consume Foundr’s content every month, and their magazine covers have been blessed by the likes of Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, Mark Cuban, Tim Ferriss and many more.

Justin Dry

Co-founder and Joint CEO, Vinomofo

Justin Dry is an Entrepreneur, Investor and Co-founder and CEO of Vinomofo, one of Australia’s fastest-growing companies.

Launched in April 2011 from a little garage in Adelaide, Vinomofo now operates in Australia, NZ and Singapore where it has grown quickly to over $50m in annual revenue, 500,000 members, and a team of 100.

Winners of Fastest Growing Company at the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 Awards 2013, Online Business of the Year at the Australian Startup Awards 2014, Best Startup at the SmartCompany Startup Awards 2014, Online Retailer of the Year 2015 at the ORIA’s, Telstra Business of the Year - Victorian Telstra Business Awards 2016, Hot Innovator 2017 at the Power Retail awards and Hottest Aussie Online Retailer in 2018, Vinomofo is focused on expanding globally in 2018.

Justin is a proven game-changer in the wine industry, taking on retail giants and challenging the ‘Bowties and BS’ attitudes of elitist wine snobs.

Awarded Spotify Young Entrepreneur of the Year at The Australian Startup Awards and has been named one of the Top 50 People in E-Commerce in 2016, 2017 and 2018 by Internet Retailing.

Justin is a regular on TV and radio shows which have included Squawk Box - CNBC Asia, Bloomberg Asia, Sky News Business, The Business - ABC, Channel 9 News, Insight – SBS, The Entrepreneurs Show – Sky Business and was one of the stars of the film The New Hustle – a feature-length documentary that follows the personal journey of three of Australia's most successful startups.

Outside of his business endeavours, Justin is a self-confessed wine nerd and islomaniac.

Read moreRead less

Shahirah Gardner

Co-founder, Finch

Shahirah Gardner is Co-founder of Finch, 'a financial app for your social life’. Finch’s behavioural approach to consumer finance landed them a spot in the #1 fintech incubator in the US, Envestnet |Yodlee, where the team won Best Product Demo. Shortly after launching across Australia in July last year, Finch raised $2.25m seed capital and was named ‘Top 10 Startup to Watch’ by Smart Company. In June 2018, Finch was awarded 'Best Digital Wallet' in Australia, at the Fintech Australia Finnie Awards.

Prior to Finch, Shahirah specialised in tech PR for global startups in Silicon Valley before returning to Australia to establish her own tech PR consultancy, Launchcode PR. She sits on the board of Girls in Tech Australia, where she champions women in STEM and entrepreneurship through community events, conferences, hackathons and bootcamps.

Read moreRead less

Tom Mcleod

CEO and Co-founder, Myagi

Tom Mcleod is the CEO and Co-founder, Myagi. Founded in 2014, Myagi is a VC backed digital network that connects companies and people in commerce around the vision of helping them better communicate and collaborate to drive the next revolution in customer experiences. Myagi is headquartered in San Francisco and has over 100 brand clients globally including household names such as Adidas, Nike, Callaway Golf and Asics. Prior to founding Myagi, Tom built a textbook price comparison engine which served 20% of the University market in Australia. Tom has also worked as an adviser to both ASX listed and private companies, helping them to transform their finance & treasury departments through new technology and innovation. Tom is an investor and adviser to several startups in Melbourne and still loves tinkering with new technologies at every opportunity.

Jason McPherson

Chief Scientist, Culture Amp

Jason McPherson is the Chief Scientist (and was the first employee) at Culture Amp – an all-in-one employee feedback and analytics platform and one of Australia’s fastest growing technology startups with offices in Melbourne, San Francisco, New York and London. Since 2011 Jason has collaborated with some of Culture Amp’s most innovative customers combining psychology, technology, and data science to create products that help educate and empower people. He continues to conduct research to guide product innovation in collaboration with Culture Amp’s growing people science and data science teams. He has a PhD in Psychology and continues to write and publish in the field.

Charlotte Petris

Founder and CEO, Timelio

Charlotte Petris founded Timelio, an online marketplace for invoice and supply chain finance, after experiencing first-hand how difficult it was for businesses to raise finance. A Chartered Accountant and corporate financier with 20 years of experience advising and helping businesses access capital, she understands the constraints many people face trying to grow a business without access to finance. Having lived and worked in NZ, UK, Singapore and Australia, working in some of the world’s largest banks, she sees Timelio as an opportunity to “do it different” in the world of finance.

Charlotte Petris founded Timelio, an online marketplace for invoice and supply chain finance, after experiencing first-hand how difficult it was for businesses to raise finance. A Chartered Accountant and corporate financier with 20 years of experience advising and helping businesses access capital, she understands the constraints many people face trying to grow a business without access to finance. Having lived and worked in NZ, UK, Singapore and Australia, working in some of the world’s largest banks, she sees Timelio as an opportunity to “do it different” in the world of finance.

Read moreRead less

Kirsteene Phelan

Chief Operating Officer, Rome2rio

Kirsteene Phelan is Rome2rio's Chief Operating Officer, with responsibility for the company's worldwide administration and marketing functions. Rome2rio is the go-to resource for helping people get from a to b anywhere in the world. Prior to Rome2rio, Kirsteene lead global online marketplace Etsy.com's entry into the Australian market, and subsequently managed its PR and Comms team. She is active in the Australian tech community, is a curator for the annual Pause Festival, and a Director of the youth entrepreneurship not-for-profit, JobHack.org.

Rob Phillpot

Co-founder, Head of Product and Engineering, Aconex

Rob Phillpot is responsible for product vision, strategy and management, as well as engineering, and is an Aconex director. Together with company Co-founder Leigh Jasper, he raised A$86 million in private equity investment before listing Aconex on the ASX in December 2014. Rob is a Director of Scotch College, Melbourne. Prior to establishing Aconex, Rob managed document control, quality and trades on a site team at Brookfield Multiplex, a leading global contracting and development firm specialising in large-scale buildings, commercial structures and infrastructure projects. It was Rob’s construction industry expertise – combined with Leigh’s consulting experience in e-commerce strategy at McKinsey – which created the Aconex cloud collaboration platform. Prior to Brookfield Multiplex, Rob was an auditor at Deloitte and Touche in Australia. He holds Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Planning and Design degrees with Honors and a Master of Building degree from the University of Melbourne.

Darrell Wade

Co-founder, Intrepid Travel

Darrell Wade is the Co-founder of Intrepid Travel and Executive Chair of the Intrepid Group, the world’s largest provider of adventure travel experiences. In 1989 Darrell and his best mate Geoff Manchester created a style of travel that would benefit travellers and the places and people they visit. During the course of his career, Darrell has been recognised as a leader in entrepreneurship and as a passionate advocate for sustainable tourism.

He spearheaded Intrepid’s climate management programme, with the company realising its goal of becoming carbon neutral in 2010. Darrell was selected as one of the first group of Australians to complete Climate Project training with the Hon Mr Al Gore. In 2016 Darrell he was one of 17 Australian business leaders to sign a statement of support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. His achievements include being winning the NAB SmartCompany Award, and being named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002. Darrell is a board member of Melbourne-based social enterprise Good Cycles, a mentor for the University of Melbourne’s entrepreneurship programme, and he is also on the Executive Committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Read moreRead less

........................................................

Facilitators

Kate Cornick

CEO, LaunchVic

Kate Cornick is the CEO of LaunchVic. Kate is deeply passionate about the role of innovation in our economy and society more broadly, and has considerable experience in technology innovation across startups, academia, corporates and government. Most recently, Kate was the CEO of human resources technology start-up Rision Ltd, creating new products, partnerships, sales and ultimately a listing on the ASX.

Bronwen Clune

GM of Digital and Products, LaunchVic

Bronwen Clune has worked 13+ years in startups and innovation. She founded an award winning news startup, helped build one of Australia’s first incubators, has worked in VC, was part of a founding team for one of Australia’s fastest growing startups and edited Australia’s leading startup news site. Bronwen also has a long career as a journalist and a strong interest in the future of media, which she speaks on at national and international conferences.